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“The quality is simply under par”, “The crowds are shrinking every year!”, “There’s no future in this league”.
These are only a few of the reoccurring statements being made, by ex-players, pundits, commentators, fans, and those who simply enjoy watching the beautiful game, towards FFA and its correspondence with football.
The culture of football in Australia, especially the A-League, has been held back since its establishment in 2004, by one simple and yet detrimental aspect of the game – the Salary Cap.
In light of this, it has become evident that by enforcing such a rule, the future of football in Australia appears to be nearing the end among a very competitive, successful, and globally recognised sport.
Moreover, this financial constraints which have been enforced in the A-League has hindered each of its clubs’ individual capability to thrive for growth – both within the roots of their culture, as well as the development of their youth.
Should the A-League have a salary cap? (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
The FFA’s implementation of the Salary Cap has been arguably the most controversial and ineffective element of the A-League, which has therefore led to the corrosion of football’s once promising image within Australia.
Australian football has simply lacked the quality and standards of other competing nations around the globe, both in regards to the A-League and the Socceroos.
For example, Scottish BT Sports commentator, Chris Sutton, effortlessly ridiculed Australian football by stating that Australians should “stick to your prawns and barbecues”.
This statement was made in light of Tom Rogic’s opportunity to represent his club, Celtic, over our nation due to a quality differentiation.
Tom Rogic is one of Australia’s brightest overseas stars. (Photo: Paul Ellis/Getty Images)
Hence, it is vital that such restrictions should be removed in order to regenerate the potential success at stake for the FFA to achieve their long term vision of making Football “the largest and most popular sport in Australia”.
The Cap was initially enforced to “facilitate competitive balance and parity between clubs”, an ideology which has been promoted around the foundations of every homegrown sporting code in Australia such as AFL, NRL etc.
Despite its initial success in the A-League by assisting clubs to develop at an equivalent rate, it can be argued that by upholding such a rule still to this day, the FFA have only restrained these clubs from growing further.
This ideology around the implementation of the Salary Cap in Australian sport can be accepted by those nationally recognised sports, however, in regards to a globally accomplished sport like football, it is simply unrealistic.
Not only will this diminish the FFA’s long-term vision to make “Football… the largest and most popular sport in Australia”, but it will also fragment the potential growth and success of the A-League.
For example, by ensuring that all clubs are on equal terms, the A-League will remain stagnant and thus fail to progress.
However, by adapting the competition to relevant tournaments elsewhere, such as the English Premier League, clubs will be provided the ability to expand.
Should the A-League look to the Premier League? (Photo by Nick Taylor/Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
Despite inequalities financially, like other leagues, the FFA must accept that a collection of clubs will inevitably triumph over the remaining clubs.
Therefore, despite their vision of a competitive and fair environment, together the FFA and A-League must acknowledge the reality. They must take the opportunity and diverge from other Australian codes to integrate a more realistic format without the Salary Cap in order to enable the A-League to ripen.
Despite record club memberships and FFA distributions designed to better market the league, according to the FFA’s 2018 Annual Review, A-League “clubs and players, traditional broadcast metrics and attendances dipped”.
For example, the 2017-18 national average attendance has been recorded at 11,332, down from between 12-13,000 over the past five years according to ABC News reporter Michael Janda.
Therefore, my immediate theory in response to the removal of the Salary Cap is that it can open up new avenues for current and future club owners to discover potential investment opportunities within these awaiting clubs that yearn for growth and success.
With large sums of money being injected into these promising clubs, current and future playing and training facilities can be modulated to meet state of the art standards.
For example, new infrastructure, such as stadiums, being built for exclusive clubs can develop an emphatic culture within the club, whereby marking a new beginning in the club’s history.
Moreover, this would rejuvenate a sense of individuality within, as opposed to having a boring, equal competitive environment, reflecting that of any other sporting code in Australia.
As a result, this would certainly enshrine the rich history and culture of the club, along with attracting a more united fan-base that is supported by loyalty and devotion to the club.
This has been successfully proven by multiple clubs across Europe, such as Liverpool FC, who have been unified through their rich history that is supplemented by obtaining a historic stadium (Anfield) and fan-base (The Kop). In turn, this would certainly bring out the best of the A-League, and finally maximise its true value within Australia.
Furthermore, with a flourishing A-League competition, minus the Salary Cap, attraction rates will dramatically increase.
Coaches, players and staff from other leagues around the world, at a more accomplished level, would therefore establish a growing interest in the A-League as a result of seeing it evidently progress.
More importantly, by attracting proficient coaches, these players in the Australian youth academy may develop skills at a higher standard.
In turn, not only would this improve their individual abilities, but also the ultimate and holistic quality of the Socceroos national squad.
Despite the threat of importing foreign players and coaches, and how it completely contradicts the ideology of establishing a well-developed Australian youth academy, the FFA must enforce more lenient policies in this regard by increasing the number of foreign players allowed to play for each club in order to attract additional players elsewhere – a chain reaction.
This could ideally be supplemented by introducing 4-6 new clubs, where hungry investors and future club owners would look to assist in their development in order to compete in the A-League.
In turn, this would provide far greater opportunities for clubs to utilise a much larger proportion of the Australian youth, along with having the freedom to sign and attract players with higher calibre to the A-League.
In correspondence with such plans to expand, it would be necessary to implement a second tier whereby those clubs who are relegated, can re-evaluate the quality within their squad to ultimately regain their position as an A-League title contender.
Further, this would promote the ideology of providing greater opportunities for the Australian youth.
For example, in light of placing a large focus on the youth, England have enforced a Homegrown Player Rule where Premier League clubs are allowed a maximum of 25 players in their first-team squad, where at least eight players must be ‘home-grown’ (English).
Likewise, this somewhat reflects and complies with the FFA’s current policy in the A-League, however, this would require some modification should the FFA take into account the potential to expand.
Therefore, by addressing the significance of removing the A-League Salary Cap, the FFA have a pioneering opportunity to re-evaluate the foundations of the A-League. Further, they must acknowledge the array of opportunities and positive outcomes available to help maximise the true potential of Australian Football.
Until then, it can be fair to say that by pursuing to uphold such a toxic and detrimental policy, Australian Football holistically will never fulfil this fantasised vision of becoming “the largest and most popular sport in Australia”.
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